If you’re an avid concert goer and a photographer, you may want to bring your two passions together. And if this is the case, Rachel and Daniel of Mango Street have a perfect video for you. In about four minutes, they give you plenty of tips to get you started with concert photography. And it’s not just about gear and shooting – but also about getting the pass and editing the photos after you bring them home.

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Film is very rarely used in music photography anymore. Primarily the reason for this is because of social media and instant news. There’s no time to go home and start pouring chemicals onto film to develop it, or wait until the morning until a lab opens to do it for you.

For festivals or stadium gigs we would bring our laptop with us and start sending out photos minutes after the artist stepped on stage. This is what people expect with modern technology.

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Back in June I covered Fortarock, a fantastic metal festival in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I had the opportunity to shoot bands like Dragonforce, Watain, Týr, Alestorm and Arch Enemy, all of whom are not only really fun to photograph, but also extremely talented musicians.

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Yes, you have read it right. When doing concert photography Gear matters! Compact cameras, bridge cameras, DSLR, crop cameras, full frame cameras, mirrorless cameras, zoom lens, prime lens, the list goes on and on. But I’m not going to talk about camera bodyies and lenses (surprised?). That really doesn’t matter, the best cam or lens are the ones that we have, we just have to learn how to use them and how to make the most out of them.

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Now that the music Festivals are starting, I think it’s a good time to share what’s in my bag for Music Festivals. Last year, I was the official photographer of eight Summer Festivals here in Portugal, and this was the gear that I’ve used on all. On one of them, I also took an extra monitor, but not in my bag.

As the official photographer, I have a place to safely store my extra gear. I also have a place to transform into my office for the festival days, so I don’t have to carry all the stuff with me.

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More and more performers are trying to ban smartphones during their concerts and only allow professional photographers to take the shots. However, Kendrick Lamar is taking a different route. He will not ban his fans from using smartphones at his shows – but there will be no professional photographers allowed.

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Gender inequality is still present in many aspects of our society. The same goes for photography industry, and this has made a renowned music photographer quit it. London-based photographer Sarah Ginn has recently announced her decision to leave music photography. The reason – misogyny and bullying she faced from her peers.

Sarah has been the resident photographer for the nightclub Fabric for ten years. However, the events from past three years forced to make the tough decision and quit music photography.

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This guide is intended for concert photography beginners. If you have a DSLR camera and are interested in how to control your camera settings to take great photos at concerts, this guide is for you. If you’re an experienced photographer who just hasn’t shot shows before, there may be some helpful info in here along with plenty of stuff you know already.

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Ryan Adams’ performance at Gasparilla Music Festival had good music and good vibe, but also one unpleasant event. the singer and photographer Joe Sale fell out over the use of flash.

Sale took photos of the concert using a flash, while it was strictly prohibited. It’s not a caprice – it’s because the singer has a Meniere’s disease. Flashing lights can cause him to have vertigo-like symptoms, ocular migraines, and seizures.

When Adams saw the photographer using the flash, he called him out by improvising a song. He also reminded security to issue a reminder that the flashes are forbidden. And Sale responded in the rudest way possible – he flipped him a bird. This was just a beginning, and the argument continued on Twitter.

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Austin, Texas based photographer, Scott Newton, has many aspiring music photographers dream gig. For the past 36 years, Newton has been the photographer for Austin City Limits (ACL), a well known music series that hosts popular musicians for special one-off live TV performances. As ACL photographer, Newton has put together an expansive portrait collection of stars such as Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Coldplay , Dave Matthews Band, and more.

Back in 1979, the first year of Newton shot for ACL, he was limited to shooting only two rolls of black and white film per show. Those earlier images were used for promotional shots in newspapers, so “You couldn’t get too fancy,” Newton told the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview. Newton now revels in artistic freedom and digital photography, taking upwards of 2000 photos per show for ACL’s website.[Read More…]